MONTGOMERY, Ala.—The Samford baseball team plated 12 runs on 15 hits to earn a 12-6 win at Alabama State Tuesday night at the Wheeler-Watkins Baseball Complex.
"We had some guys swing the bat well tonight," Samford head coach
Casey Dunn said. "We had several big hits. That was the encouraging thing tonight."
For Samford at the plate,
Austin Edens went 4-for-5 with a double and two RBI.
Hunter Swilling went 3-for-6, and
Alex Lee drove in four runs, going 2-for-4 at the plate.
Mark Donham (3-1) pitched 2.1 innings in relief, giving up no runs on two hits to earn the win on the mound for Samford.
Tristan Widra,
Robert Perteet,
Philip Flach,
Eric Wright and
Wyatt Burns also saw time on the mound for Samford.
Alabama State was led at the plate by Yamil Pagan, going 3-for-4 with a triple and two RBI. Cesar Rivera went 2-for-5 for the Hornets. Charles Taylor (0-2) pitched 2.1 innings, giving up six runs on eight hits to take the loss on the mound for the Hornets.
Samford jumped on top with six runs in the top of the third inning. Lee drove in two runs in the inning, while
Jared Watson,
Heath Quinn,
Richard Greene and
T.J. Dixon drove in a run each to give Samford a 6-0 lead.
Alabama State came back with two runs in the bottom of the third inning to cut the Samford lead to 6-2. Pagan and Waldyvan Estrada drove in the runs to put the Hornets on the scoreboard.
The Bulldogs added two runs in the top of the sixth inning to push their lead to 8-2. Lee hit a sacrifice fly to left field to drive in Swilling for the first run of the inning. Greene later walked with the bases loaded to score Quinn for a six-run Samford lead.
The Hornets answered with four runs in the bottom of the sixth inning to make the score 8-6. Manny Rodriguez hit a three-run double to account for most of the damage. Pagan also drove in a run for ASU in the sixth inning.
Samford added to its lead with two runs in the eighth inning and two more in the ninth inning to make the score 12-6. Edens and Dixon drove in the runs in the eighth inning. The runs in the ninth inning were driven in by Lee and Edens.
With the win, Samford improves to 9-12 on the season. Alabama State falls to 13-9 with the loss.
Samford will play again Wednesday night, when the Bulldogs play host to Jacksonville State. The game is scheduled for a 6 p.m. start from Joe Lee Griffin Field.
